French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Friday that Mohamed Laouaij Bouhlel, a Tunisian-born driver living in Nice was a “terrorist linked to radical Islam”.

But prosecutors said that he wasn’t known to intelligence services, according to the Associated Press.

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An ID card bearing the name of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel

Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve was also guarded on the issue and when asked if he was in a position to draw a link between radical Islam and the incident, he said “no”, according to Sky News.

He added: “We have an individual who was not known to intelligence services for activities linked to radical Islam.”

Prosecutor Francois Molins said that Bouhlel was known to police and judicial authorities for matters of threats, violence, theft and damages committed between 2010 and 2016. He was convicted March 24 in Nice criminal court and handed a six-month suspended sentence for violence with a weapon committed in January.

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A makeshift memorial to those who lost their lives in the attack

Molins said that “he was on the other hand totally unknown to intelligence services ... and was never placed on a watch list for radicalisation”.

He said Bouhlel’s ex-wife is in custody as police try and determine whether he “had ties to Islamist terrorist organisations”.

As well as killing 84 people (including 10 children), the attack also injured 202 people, with 52 in a critical state and 25 of them in intensive care.